When the friend of a famous singer makes his debut as music director, you would expect both to come together. True friends need not be physically close and they don’t need long conversations. SPB said Raja need not write down anything, he had every detail required in his brain, neatly organised.
ILAYARAJA BEST SONGS HOW TO
As a proud friend, SPB had said that he is amazed and proud that his friend who did not know how to write notations worked so hard and became a maestro whom the world respects. SPB found his mentor in films soon enough and started singing playback, but Raja had to wait longer for his film debut. Ilayaraja played the harmonium and Amaran played the guitar to the popular film songs sung by SPB. Balu, the only one from outside the Paavalar family, was the ‘elder brother’ in the group who would fetch Ilayaraja from his music class on his scooter for concerts. The ‘Paavalar Brothers Orchestra’ that young Balu had organised with Ilayaraja and his brothers Gangai Amaran and Daniel Bhaskar began it all. The engineer-aspirant who turned to music out of passion and to help his father financially with the 150 or 200 that a recorded song could fetch him, never imagined such a long run.
SPB broke into the music scene when TM Soundarrajan and PB Sreenivas ruled the Tamil music scene and Ghantasala dominated the Telugu industry.